Arabic version: دفن تسعة من أسلاف يولنغو في أرض أرنهيم

According to ABC News, nine Yolŋu ancestors have been laid to rest in Bäniyala, a remote Arnhem Land community, after their remains were returned from a Melbourne collection. The remains had been taken from the Northern Territory between 85 and 90 years ago by University of Melbourne anthropologist Donald Thomson.

New provenance research connected the remains to Arnhem Land communities after decades in Victoria. At a burial ground by Blue Mud Bay, the Maḏarrpa clan hosted a ceremony marking the end of a years-long effort to bring the ancestors home. Their ashes were placed in larrakitj, or log coffins, and buried on a hill as men sang ancestral beings back onto sacred land.

Maḏarrpa clan leader Djambawa Marawili said the ceremony would help younger generations understand that ancestral heritage had been taken away and stored elsewhere. He said Yolŋu culture had remained and that ancestors could be brought back through the song cycles and ceremonies of earlier generations.

Melbourne University Laureate Professor Marcia Langton said the remains should never have been removed and stressed the importance of returning ancestors and sacred objects to clans and homelands. Including the Bäniyala ceremony, 14 ancestors have been returned to six north-east Arnhem Land clans over the past week.

Interim vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said universities and collecting institutions in Australia and worldwide had a profound responsibility to return ancestors and cultural heritage material. The university will send translated statements about the Bäniyala ceremony to institutions in countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Indonesia, Norway, Italy and the Czech Republic.